I was reading about
Bérubé's computer problems (and, yes, the solution to this and every other computer problem is, of course, to buy a mac instead) and thinking about what would be helpful in the Eschaton household. And, it occurred to me that a nice big hard drive which could be plugged into your wireless router with good automatic backup software would be just the thing. And, what do you know,
such things do exist! (not an endorsement of that particular brand and product - there are others -- just the concept)